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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
40 February 2015
Battling
successfully for
Travellers in Cork
Traveller Visibility Group celebrates 21 years
overcoming prejudice. By Chrissie Sullivan
T
HIS year the Traveller Visibility
Group (TVG) will celebrate its
21st year working in Cork with
the Traveller community, tackling social
exclusion and discrimination head-on.
We have been to the fore in highlight-
ing the many practices of institutional
racism in our city. When we were set up,
there were three key services in Cork
implementing segregated provision
to Travellers. The local Social Welfare
Office had all Travellers signing on on
the same day of the week; maternity
services put Traveller mothers in pri-
vate wards to spare local settled women
“the trauma” of having to be in the same
room as young Traveller mothers; and
from pre-school up to secondary-level
Traveller children were educated in sep-
arate classrooms.
These systems have changed. However,
insitutional racism continues to be a real-
ity. Most recently we have learned that
racial profiling of young Travellers has
been taking place in the city. Traveller
children are being placed on the Garda
pulse system. This is an abuse of human
rights.
TVG has been to the fore in creating
the expectation that Travellers have
the right to a seat as equal partners at
the table for decision-making in Cork,
when it involves Traveller issues. We
are playing a key role in the Traveller
‘interagency’ forum and we are seen as
equal partners by the Traveller Health
Unit. This brings together heads of
disciplines from within the HSE and
Traveller projects across the south to
deliver a more effective health service
to Travellers.
We are strong advocates for the
Traveller community in obtaining state
services that have clearly been set up with
one community in mind, the Irish settled
population. Many of these services are
slow to change. Some services are tak-
ing steps to adapt and change. However
we lack political leadership on this.
The Government needs to focus on the
experiences of minorities within state
service provision. The 2010 All Ireland
Traveller Health Study shows this is a
life and death issue for Travellers. Life
expectancy for Traveller men was 15.1
years less than the general population,
while that of Traveller women was 11.5
years less. Traveller infant mortality was
estimated at 14.1 per 1,000 live births
compared to 3.9 per 1,000 for the gen-
eral population.
Traveller unemployment runs at
over 80%. We were one of the first
projects in the country that took on
the direct employment of Travellers as
Traveller Community Health Workers.
TVG is now the biggest employer of
Travellers in the south. This is impor-
tant so that other Travellers see that
there are real job opportunities in the
community. We have worked hard at
interagency level to address the issues
of long-term unemployment within our
community. However, we do not have
adequate resources and there needs to
be a targeted approach to engagement
of Travellers in new programmes and
employment opportunities in the main-
stream labour market.
We are particularly proud of the
child-care centre we have created as
it represents a truly multi-cultural
approach to early-childhood learn-
ing. When it opened seven years ago it
was Traveller-specific. We wanted to be
sure of how best to approach a move to
a more integrated service. Now we have
quite a number of different nationalities,
including Irish settled children playing
and working alongside Traveller chil-
dren in our centre. This gives hope for
the future education of our children in
an inclusive society.
These are all positive steps but many
issues remain. Only 8.2% of Travellers
completed secondary school according
to census 2011. The 4.3 percent over-
all reduction in government spending in
the five years after 2008 compare with
an 86 percent cut to Traveller educa-
tion initiatives and an 85 percent cut to
Traveller accommodation schemes dur-
ing the same period.
Traveller accommodation policy has
made little impact on living conditions
for many Travellers. Traveller-specific
accommodation is less and less availa-
ble. Conditions on some sites are awful.
Nomadic facilities are still not being
provided. Standard housing and pri-
vate-rented accommodation are the
accommodation options being pro-
vided. Local authorities develop plans to
accommodate Travellers on the basis of
poor consultation methods. They often
fail to meet their own targets and there
is no State sanction.
The recent five-year Traveller accom-
modation plans in both the city and
county of Cork have fallen way short
in their assessment of the needs for
Traveller-specific accommodation.
When TVG was set up in the 1990s we
didn’t have the drugs and alcohol mis-
use that we have today in the community.
The rate of Traveller suicide is now six
times higher than the national average.
These new issues are putting huge pres-
sure on whole families and the whole
community.
TVG is seen as a beacon for Travellers
in the city. We have created a safe space
for Travellers who want to embrace their
Traveller identity and who want to be
part of the Traveller movement. •
Chrissie Sullivan is coordinator of the
Traveller Visibility Group
POLITICS TRAVELLERS
In the 1990s
Traveller
mothers were
put in private
wards to spare
local settled
women “the
trauma” of
having to be
in the same
room; and
from pre-
school up to
secondary-
level Traveller
children were
educated
in separate
classrooms
“
Spring Lane. Cork
